Dear White People: I’m Not Looking For Your Apologies After Years of Torment.

Reflections on Reflections

February 21st, 2017, I wrote an article reflecting on how so many white people tormented us, and this torment still exists. Through these civil rights photos, you can see them threatening us. Beating us. Humiliating us. Lynching us. Burning us. Doing their barbaric, violent most just because they fear how we tell the truth about this society we share, this society they govern. Just because we announce our humanity in the face of persistent demonization dealt by whites. Many people commented disappointment that my column didn’t serve to oust those yelling, angry racist whites suppressing black thought. Being that I concluded that these people still exist in spirit today, perhaps there would be satisfaction found in this column.

These angry, yelling bigots still exist in the spirit of regular, common white people who think “they are not racist”.

Needless to say, this article sparked a lot of discussion and debate. Many people — of all colors — have joined discussion on the matter. While most were reflective on the issue of racism and oppression (which is my ultimate intent), there was a few who sought to silence me on the matter.

The commenting section of these articles exist not for me, but for everyone else who reads and observes the site. Generally speaking, I don’t normally comment in my own comment sections. I think it’s fair to allow the public to discuss the column with minimal supervision or interaction. For the record I do read every single comment written. People are totally allowed to support or oppose my stance.

Things get a bit different when someone attempts to attack me in through Facebook messaging. You see, I find a serious problem with how people try to abuse and suppress people of color through private messaging services. There’s a difference between talking to a writer through an open commenting section of the column versus abusing that said writer in private. In the commenting section a person can be held accountable by others; there’s an audience with varying degrees of intelligence and rational thought. In a private message, it’s just a yelling contest. There’s no accountability unless the public can observe.

The irony is not lost on the fact that this all stemmed from me commenting on a Civil Rights photo with a white woman yelling at a black person. Here we have again, like clockwork, a white woman yelling at a black person. The irony becomes even more bitter to the bite when you realize that Courtney Sparks Massery is the granddaughter (married into the family) of Hazel Bryan Massery — the white bigot in the photo yelling at a black teenager. So it seems that the white supremacist apple doesn’t fall too far from the white supremacist tree.

As I said before, nothing has changed.

Being that white supremacists always preferred hoods and masks, nothing really has changed. Instead of preferring white hoods, they now prefer white lies. The white, Ku Klux Klan hood, while still existing in reality, has long been abandoned for a metaphorical one: double-speak, coded language, deflections and transference in discussion. The empty claims of colorblindness while still acknowledging and observing color differences. The tone policing. The clinging relationship to ancient symbolic relics of a racist past, all while denying racism modern day. This blatant dishonesty towards the state of nonwhites in America, serves as a new and improved white hood or mask to shield responsibility and accountability of the State of race relations. ~ Johnny Silvercloud, 21 Feb 2017

While I could tear apart this deranged, white fragility drenched woman’s emotionally abusive comment piece by piece, I really want to bring attention to the intellectually dishonest “apology” she presented in the most passive-aggressive way.

Before we begin, I want to show this photo again:

If conservative media existed back then, we would still live under Jim Crow law.

Notice anything different in the photo on the left? Does this photo still makes sense?

The reason why I bring this photograph to the table is to illustrate the reality we live in. Tomi Lahren is a woman who is PAID (handsomely) to yell at black people. My conclusion to what ever happened to these old bigots, is the fact that they live through these new and improved white supremacy agents. Some get paid to yell at socio-politically aware black people. Most yell at socio-politically aware black people for free, just like Courtney did.

In the original photograph, the white woman was Hazel Bryan Massery, and the word out on the internet is that she has long apologized for her white supremacist behavior towards Elizabeth Eckford, the black woman in the photo. Courtney, her daughter, figures that this is very important and should move my overall critique.

Let’s engage in critical thinking here.

White people, please understand this fact — I don’t want an apology after 50-70 years of you tormenting us racially. I want you to stop being racist right now.

Let’s look at Tomi Lahren again — a white woman who is paid handsomely as a white supremacy propagandist, who exists only to yell at numerous black people who are fighting for basic humanity and civil rights in America. She exist only to normalize blatant racism in America. I want people to think for a moment how immensely difficult such people make it for people of color and other minorities such as the LGBT community. You might not know it, but many minorities hold back tears when they see her type, screaming at them.

Should black abolitionists today accept an apology from Tomi Lahren in 2077, when she’s old and feeble?

With many bigoted whites of the yesteryear lying on their deathbeds, confessing, apologizing, do you think I would give a damn if Tomi Lahren, now 24 years old by the time of this publishing, apologizes in old age, on her deathbed, in the year 2077? Tomi Lahren would be 85 years old on that year; I would be 96. Even if I cared, I might not live long enough to see that mess. I want her and her ilk to STOP BEING RACIST NOW, not later.

You have to be out of your mind if you think I give a damn about your apology. The notion that a white person, in the name of white supremacy, can practically spend their better years terrorizing black people into post-traumatic stress disorder, silence us through law and violence, kill us, lynch us, anathematize us fighting for our rights can infinitely expect forgiveness with they are knocking on death’s door, is sickening.

It’s a despicable white privilege flex to think you can control a black person — black people in general — by gaslighting them, forcing a forgiveness bug on them. White people, I’m letting you know that I don’t have this forgiveness bug that you think is genetic in all black people.

Let’s put this in a way you can understand: White people, would you accept an apology from a decrepit ISIS or Al Qaeda member 40-50 years from now? After years spent dedicated to terrorism?

Why on earth would I give a damn about a weak ass apology, when you spent the majority of your life either ignorant and implicitly involved in subtracting from people of color, or explicitly engaged in the overt support of suppressing, oppressing and persecuting black people? Apology? Are you serious?

This is Facebook message on the right belongs to Miranda Miller, another white woman who feels drunk on white supremacy. A while back ago, this bigoted woman felt the urge to litter my inbox with a racist tirade.

I find it interesting that white women think they hold some power over a black man. What makes these white women feel that they could berate a black person with impunity? This is what white supremacy on a private level looks like. I can only imagine how she speaks of black people in the company of white people she feels is on board with here degree of racism.

I never spoke on this one, but being that these comments are starting to accumulate, I just had to bring another one into public view. Why don a KKK hood when you can emotionally torment Afro-Americans with the distance of the internet? I’ve said it a while back, that black people are in an abusive relationship with white America. Imagine dealing with this all your life. Imagine the majority of an entire society raining down upon you for simply existing. Imagine being the designated boogeyman of your nation, and white people like this think they are just in doing what they are doing. Keep in mind that people like Courtney and Miranda, do these things for free.

This is why I speak.

Dear white people: I want you to let all of your racist, sociologically abusive friends know that if they ever get the notion to fuck with me. . . don’t.

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The Soul Brother #1 of a Kind. Consequentialist street photographer abolitionist writer/speaker who stands for any oppressed peoples. I do it because every man and woman deserves freedom of thought -- especially black folks.

They’re not Oscar. Maybe their aggrivated. There are only so many excuses on why someone didn’t create themselves a good life, especially in the United States. If a boy can survive a literal Central American warzone, migrate to the United States and become a doctor, than there is zero excuses why that can’t be possible when you are born here.

To Derek and all the naysayers. The examples that you are bringing up that are successful black people? THEY WORKED HARDER THAN ALL OF US TO GET THERE. The point isn’t that it’s not now possible (thanks civil rights activists and civil rights lawyers!) for a minority to find success, the point is that fake apologies do not reconcile trauma.

But speaking on those people, they are the roses that grew from the concrete. Some of them had good luck to some extent but all of them had to be much more careful than most white people. Being abused, discriminated against, and sometimes violently attacked can make you hard and course. This is where that “hood” mentality comes from. Just go to Africa and tell me that its natural for black people to be angry and violent and rough.This comes from extreme trauma and not being able to beat the odds.
I know its not the full paper but here is a study on upwardly mobile african american families in multiple generations.

I think its important to note that people can have success AND life satisfaction while still speaking out in a means to hold society at a higher standard and call for a greater understanding of diverse perspective.

THe assumption that this author is bitter and unsatisfied with life is completely unfounded. Here we have a well-read man with the confidence and ability to express such complex social injustices, who is being followed by a lot more than a handful of people. Hell, he gets hate mail! You know he’s a star, lol. Not to mention, if you do a little digging, he served in the military and is also a successful photographer. Not to mention that he’s not bad to look at it! ahaha.

I really hope people reading this start to really open up and read because if you want anyone to “get over it” (wow, thats original) then you are going to have to first listen, and try to get over the fact that we as white people are born in to a white male supremacist system and particularly a Christian dominated government. This means that we have to carry the weight of our ancestors and even the ones who just look like us, because we are being given their legacy. We can make a change or we can keep pretending that everything is fine. Each person has a choice to be open to being educated or to stay closed and accept their privilege and assimilation to an oppressive culture.. Hazel chose to “ham it up” (which is what she called her yelling the n word at Elizabeth) and not only follow the crowd but be a posterchild for hate. Which side are YOU on?

Sounds like someone didn’t read the article and is clearly feeling personally attacked which is the predictable response to pointing out the psycho and sociopathic nature of most whites towards so called black people

1. Your brothers in Africa were practising slavery like everyone else in the world (i.e. Barbary Coast, domestic, tribal kidnappings, etc.); and, in fact, have more modern slavery today.

2. Your brothers in Africa sold you out in the first place through tribal divisions, and pre-existing slave trade and routes and middlemen and slave traders from interior to coasts. In fact, it is estimated that more Africans died in Africa just simply from being attacked, stolen, and dying from journey to coasts more than the Middle Passage AND slave trading in America combined. Henry Louis Gates even explores this and says that black people are in denial of their own ancestor misdeeds and contributions to their past and present day plights. But you all prefer to blame the white boogeyman because it is easier emotionally and intellectually for you to deal with since your whole theory is based on attributing guilt in a binary linear fashion.

3. Your brothers in Africa wished they lived in the white West because it is a more secure, more stable, less corrupt, more wealthy, more free, more educated, more health, more technology, more law driven society as opposed to continuous downward spiral of murder, genocide, rape, famine, greed, and constantly changing power structures from savage handling of people’s own countries and fellow man. Hoses and ropes are nothing compared to Africa.

4. If you don’t like the West and don’t like being the minority, then go back to Africa.

5.If you believe in democracy, free market, law, and community formations than you should recognise the reality that whites are the majority at 60-70% of society; and, therefore, will be the primary voters and consumers and power holders in their own society that they dominate demographically through human bodies living in a democratic capitalist society that is shaped by voter and consumer needs and wants. Blacks are only 13% of society so obviously they wouldn’t have as much voter, consumer, and power positions in a 60-70% white majority democratic capitalist society. This is not a conspiracy of “privilege” no different than the results in any society with a 60-70% society that would be the majority occupier of politics, economics, and power, especially in democratic capitalist systems let alone totalitarian or dictator states where the minorities are treated far worse.

6. Every single rights and freedoms and historical changes that resulted in progress was fought on front lines by white people and put into law and only ALLOWED by white society. White majority society didn’t have to do anything but yet they gave you more rights and freedoms than your own fellow African races that treat their own people and minorities like animals, and never seem to progress or learn from past or enact changes when there is a majority in power.

Go back to Africa? How can we go back to a place we’ve never been to Sherlock? We’re Americans. And just because Africans sold their brothers into slavery (as just about every culture in history has-Sherlock) it doesn’t excuse our treatment in America. Go back to Europe

If this is true then you will have to agree that white people were sending white people to gas chambers and death camps in Nazi Germany

Since those identifying as white people are the true minority how about you go back to wherever people who create world destroying technology come from?

As for the rest of your Stormfrontesque rant — it’s easy to claim that so called white people fought for the miserable condition they foisted onto black people especially when they wouldn’t allow black people to fight in the first place. Go home Dylan.

Have you any idea to the degree your statement ranks on the white privilege scale. You’re telling that during slavery we were all one color. That mass incarceration where it’s PROVEN more black people than white are in prison. That Jim Crow targeted everyone because Hey! We’re all one color.

White ppl are always looking for forgiveness and a pat on the back for the most minimal of basic human decency. They want the kudos without putting in any of the work.
Hall nah, they don’t get to have forgiveness just because they feel bad and begged for it.

They have to atone, and none of them want to do that work. You see how the lady above wants forgiveness for something her momma did, not anything she herself did. She quick to take credit when OTHER white ppl do all the work, see.

Quite possibly some of the most mentally and emotionally lazy ppl in the world. Will cause pain, not just to the handful of ppl in their orbit, but to thousands, millions of PoC, lgbtq, etc, and then want forgiveness right before they’re off to Hell (if one exists.)

Once again, they put in no atonement, no undoing of the damage, or pain, they caused, but want applause for suddenly realizing how shitty they were, though.

Perfect. I’ve always said, “I’m sorry” is an action, not a phrase. It can’t just be said with words – to your point, atonement must be made. I’m a straight, white, Christian male. The definition of privilege. And I’ll be damned if I don’t spend every waking moment using every ounce of privilege to point out the evils that we still see every day.

And I’m sick of the “I’m not racist” crap. It’s only in admitting our own racism that we can move beyond it. Am I perfect? Nope. Might not ever be. But I’ll die trying. And with my kids, I hope to break the chains even further.

Keep doing your thing, sir. And know that for every stupid angry white woman, there’s quite a few people in your corner shouting “YES!”

You have good insights and real meaning.the kind that is positive for all people.no one wants to b hanging from a tree just beacuse he or she is different.not a dog cat or even a rat.every thing feel pain.may the gods smile on you and your sons

“Quite possibly some of the most mentally and emotionally lazy ppl in the world. Will cause pain, not just to the handful of ppl in their orbit, but to thousands, millions of PoC, lgbtq, etc, and then want forgiveness right before they’re off to Hell (if one exists.)”

This sounds eerily similar to accusations against things trump has said;

“I think that the guy is lazy. And it’s probably not his fault, because laziness is a trait in blacks. It really is, I believe that. It’s not anything they can control.”

Excellent! I’m listening to “Democracy in Black” on audiobook right now and this is so in line with it. Even as a member of a tiny vilified minority myself (a gay Jew), it is impossible for me to know what black people go through every single day and in an accumulation over years and generations. It’s incredibly important to learn as much as I can so I can be better than what society expects of me as a white person. Thank you!

You are speaking as though all white people are one. I would never speak about all people of any race or religion or ethnicity as though they are one, as though they all think the same or feel the same. Black lives do matter, so do Methodist lives, so do German lives, so do female lives and old peoples’ lives, gay lives and straight lives, Jewish lives and Catholic lives. ALL life matters. History is history and is important for many reasons, mainly to avoid repeating it. We can learn from it. But I am not today’s history, I am tomorrow’s history. Just as I would not jump on the White Lives Matter band wagon, I will not jump on the Black Lives Matter band wagon. I live on the ALL lives matter band wagon. Your color, gender, religion etc does not matter more than any one else’s .

I’m sorry nancy but you seem to misunderstand why we say black live mater we know that everybody lives matter but every life isn getting shot up by police officers only black lives an it don’t seems to matter by no other race but black lives matter they are kill our black people an getting away with it no body is caring about black lives matter but black people it reminds me of the lynchings an burning of black people in the old days actually its the something an by the way this is a great article Mr silver cloud I was a kid back then an I saw some of this stuff take place it was horrible back then I hated white people an still do I just tolerate them I only deal with them when I have to but I’m nice an respectable to them but I see them as evil devils sorry to say this but this is the affects of racism that I hate them from the things I’ve seen an the deals I’ve had with them growing up in the south

I feel a particular need to educate you because I’m sure POC are getting sick of dealing with this shit.
Fellow white lady,
Of course all lives matter- but All are not getting gunned down by police because the color of their skin which society has deemed to be “dangerous.” If you can’t fathom the idea of treating someone different because of their skin, bravo one step forward. But not everyone thinks that way and it’s getting black men killed. KILLED. So to pipe up with All Lives Matter is just plain ignorant and perfectly demonstrates the white privilege you have (but I’m sure you deny because the idea that you were given the upper hand makes you sick to think of). And it should. Privilege is about more than money or upward mobility; although they are a large part for a good deal of people. Privilege is about the ability or inability to move through the world that was either designed for you or not.

So next time you see Black Lives Matter and it pulls the strings of your fragile white heart just remember; IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU. Your uncomfortability with being racist does NOT and NEVER will be equal to the fear that POC have every single day. To continually deny POC a voice to express their RIGHT TO LIVE and have their life matter and shout them down because of your white guilt is fucked, RACIST and wrong on a deep level.

The stats say many white are of this persuasion one way or the other and at this time in the history of your country the well of concern has begun to run dry. Treating your citizens as humans is not a problem that takes centuries to implement.

It’s a good thing you weren’t expecting an apology from shit that outdates your stupid ass by 50 years, because someone like me would laugh in your face. Racism exist now because you decide to hold on to it. A black President, black senators, black congressmen, black governors, black mayors, black judges and black CEO’s exist. The truth is they exist because they WORKED HARD to achieve those goals. They put in the work and the education to pursue these goals.

Racism also exist so people like you can write articles and make money off the blood of those who actually did suffer. It exist so Don Lemon can get on TV with a black panel and make excuses while blacks can’t succeed.. All the while CNN cheerleading riots, applauding black communities as they burn down their OWN businesses and neighborhoods from an epidemic of “police brutality they helped invent. But that black president and those black millionaire CEO’s must be imaginary, right?.. They don’t exist. And if they did, they were just chosen, right?

I know you hate shit like this, because your rebuttal would be bitter.. It wouldn’t make you think, it’d somehow be more ammo for your “cause”.. But what you really could do is sit on the street, take more pictures and get over it. But acting like you don’t hate white people. That’s sad. Remember, the first step in mending the problem is admitting it. That’s what the black panels say to whites on CNN. I don’t apologize to racist bro. Especially bitter ass, whiny racists.

Oh know.. Three people out of hundreds of millions? I can triple that number of black racist posts from facebook in 35 seconds. This article doesn’t prove anything except those who are getting on their knees and apologizing for something they had nothing to do with are cowards.

As an affluent white person, like Derek, I found this article hard to read. Unlike Derek however, I found it uncomfortable because I saw the sad truth in every word and asked myself questions like how have i been complicit in this and what can I do to affect real change. Derek, racism has not been solved mate. Your first post proves this.

Great, thought provoking article. If we do not ask tough questions about the past, how can we learn and move forward?

I, too, do not know why people are angry, violent, or want to harm others.

As Booker T. Washington so eloquently said, “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him,” and, “You can’t hold a man down without staying down with him,” and, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”

I met a Mexican guy who grew up in a largely black neighbourhood in America in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

He told me he had trouble sympathizing with the BLM movement because, even though he supports equality for everyone, he was tormented, beaten up, and bullied so furiously by the black students largely in relation to him being latino, an immigrant and his sexuality. Both him and his brother were the only 2 latinos in the school.

He said white students were actually very nice to him.

He said he didn’t want to feel anger towards the entire community, of course, but he was very scarred by the treatment of the black students towards him. He said he has gotten over it, mostly, but not completely.

I will see him again tomorrow.

Johnny, what would you tell him if he told his story about the abuse he felt from the black community at his school?

He’s not going to reply so I would try to find another black friend to answer your question (although its probably rhetorical).

My opinion is totally just mine and may or may not be worth anyones time BUT As a white anti-racist i would tell him that his trauma is real but his fear is not and he knows it, otherwise he wouldn’t be trying to get over it.

That said, what white people, as a category of people holding power in institutions, have done to his people and the black people who abused him is vastly more violent, traumatic, and long-lasting. Slavery and then years of abusive and degrading segregation are also passed down and mixed with all the bs of modern day. We can work and work and work and create a lot of beautiful healing in our own communities and familys to the point where progressive white people have MANY black allies. I’d be willing to bet that most black people would rather forgive than fight. Fighting requires vulnerability to more pain. Forgiveness allows you to move on and work on a base level in the hopes that the other person will fix their shit on their own.

But the sad thing is that the media and the governemt and most institutions still think im innocent and naturally intelligent and my black and brown sisters and borthers are not. They are held back and asked to do more while I’m applauded for being relatively antiracist.

I would tell this to your friend, and say,” your trauma is real and I’m here for you to talk about that and or try to heal yourself because you didn’t deserve to be bullied AND there are a lot more layers to this and you and all of those people to say that this story, your story— defines black people and/or even remotely matches the oppression of people of african descent for multiple generations— Hundreds of years, maybe more. *and* having white friends and knowing nice white people doesn’t mean that systematic racism is a hoax. I hope you continue to be blessed in that way because SO many others like you have actually not. If you came to where I grew up for instance, it would be a totally different story and you would have been traumatized by white people, gaurunteed.”

Well lisa, you go ahead and apologize. You be the one on your knees begging forgiveness over you being born white. Go apologize for all the things that happen to people in society, than blame it on society itself, not a person’s integrity. Go apologize for your parents and how it would have been better if they just never existed because their whiteness is a problem to the culture of others. Go apologize… Apologize, beg, cry, take yourself out, take out other whites who refuse to apologize. Remember, you are the problem. You are the reason blacks suffer. You are the reason. You.

Heres the rub as I see it: facing my ingrained racism and learning to listen first and then ask questions has actually made me stronger, rather than weaker as you suggest. Its just not that simple, is it? If it was, Johnny wouldn’t even need to write. He could go about his life taking pictures and living his truth.

Personally, from what I’ve discovered I wouldn’t adk to trade places. Yes, I ingratiate myself often, but the benefit is connection, trust building, wisdom. Frankly, I’m not really humble at all! I have fought a lot on my path to antiracist beliefs. I personally have hurt more than a few people even knowing that systematic racism exists. Every day is a new day. Its not easy to take a bit of someone elses load, to face blame, to admit failure or weakness. But my thing is that I finally realized that black people have been carrying my load for years. Whether they know it or not, whether they are richer than me or male…

Its not as destructive as one thinks, or even as it should be. It’s actually the opposite. Its empowering and opens doors.

1) You are way too hard on yourself for nothing at all and you are not your ancestors. As the article implies, nobody wants an age old apology, we want you to be the person you are today. This article has nothing to do with you, wee kind person.

2) Derek Wright on the other hand clearly has deep seeded issues that are affecting his decision making and communication skills, because wow he has so far hated on Black people, a Gay Jew up above in these comments, and anyone that even remotely sympathizes with a PoC.

Clearly this guy is walking vitrol and probably is a Neonazi or White Supremacist, or soon will be if he isn’t one already.

I can’t be shocked by the comments of these women, but somehow my own level of ingrained racism allows me to be. I always think, “damn that could be my cousin. that could be my nieghbor. they seem so wholesome and loving and then out of nowhere comes this disgusting display of ignorance and hate.

I don’t know if you are interested but I just read an article by a journalist in the UK that had met them multiple times

Elizabeth was hip but wary. Things began to unfold over time. Apparently, COurtney’s “MAWMAW” had spent the later part of her years “helping out black folk” by taking them to the forest or something. So, of course, this created a scenario of redemption for her in which it seems she felt was worthy of her crime. Maybe even Elizabeth agreed, she went along trying to work things out with Hazel for a while. It wasn’t until finally that Hazel admitted that she didn’re *really* think anything was wrong with what she did. That no one in her community talked about it later and the redemption she sought was guilt from public shaming. She was more upset about the shaming than how it actually effected Elizabeth. And furthermore, her attempts at redemption and reconcilation were fell short when she lacked the ability to admit wrongdoing and/or severity.

This is something that white people really need to pay attention to and work on. Thanks for sharing your perspective and alerting me to this reality. Its giving me a deeper understanding of my own actions and word choices. I aim to do better.

This is everything. This is giving me life and giving a cohesive set of words to my thoughts and feelings, which are, at times, too strong, too much, too painful to verbalize as I am subjected to this almost every single day:
“Instead of preferring white hoods, they now prefer white lies. The white, Ku Klux Klan hood, while still existing in reality, has long been abandoned for a metaphorical one: double-speak, coded language, deflections and transference in discussion. The empty claims of colorblindness while still acknowledging and observing color differences.”

I see the fact that the reconciliation between Elizabeth Eckford and Hazel Bryan Massery was short-lived, because of reasons not far from what is addressed in the post, was already addressed.

I think that the media (both news and fiction) is largely to blame for the expectations imposed on African Americans relative to the expectation of them having the forgiveness bug and all that. It’s white savior meets redemption arc basically.
It’s effective and popular narrative but doesn’t work in the real world.
What’s even more problematic is that it implies there is exactly 1 acceptable way for a black person to position themselves in response to the “apology” and that is subordination. The apology overweighting in importance the damage done to the person who is supposed to accept it with open arms isn’t equality by any stretch of the imagination. In general i think it’s a waste of energy having people trying to clear their conscience on your expense.

I find it interesting how both Moonlight and Fences deal with the apology/redemption theme, though in different contexts, that never result in full forgiveness because they focus on the people who’s lives were affected by what other people asked forgiveness for instead for going to the redemptive happy ending. I noticed how rare of an approach that is in fiction. What’s interesting is how Viola Davis as a 50s housewife gets to stand up to her husband and never fully forgive him, while on How To Get Away With Murder she as a high profile lawyer and professor is constantly denigrated by her students (usually white), characters (usually white) are redeemed at her expense, she’s often reminded (by white characters) how her traumas don’t matter compared to theirs and similar stuff.
What’s also interesting related to asking for forgiveness is the white showrunner’s tweet about how valuable the black character he just killed off for no good reason (very graphically, often showing his burned body in numerous episodes) and talented the actor portraying him is was met with a substantial number of “than why did you kill him off” like responses. It ironically makes it even more obvious that, despite the progressive/inclusive label they claim, the writing and inherent seeking for forgiveness for killing off a prominent black character showcases the implicit racism of the writers. When people respond by asking why they killed him off, they’re practically telling the show runner to stop being racist rather than apologizing for – even if not ever stated explicitly.

For us foreigners fiction and the on-line discussions about it is probably how we end up being subjected to racial dynamics both through fictional depiction and how it’s perceived by the public. It’s what happened to me with the show I mentioned above. I realized I was involved in ration discussions without realizing at first. Even when it comes to fiction, many only find acceptable characters of color, especially Black, when they fit certain criteria, specifically they have to be subordinated. If they’re not they will be despised. Certain opinions many had about specific characters made no sense to me until I realized many simply decode characters based on stereotypes relative to the color of their skin.
I really thing something similar is behind the expectation of there being a forgiveness bug in every black person. People just buy into every “important” white savior storyline and movie out there. This stories are written to be very comfortable to the white audience while being over hyped for the issues they address.

How certain people react to the honest uncomfortable for them to hear POV of a Black man is self explanatory and abhorrent. I don’t care how they’re articulated or if they feature racial slurs or not, they all say the exact same thing. They’re telling you where your place is and how it’s wrong for you to not stay in the place they defined as appropriate for you. I realized it’s a compete waste of time to engage in discussions with these people since it’s all a succession of talking points that have no merit. I think it’s merely a diversion tactic that only serves to take the focus away from the original arguments, in this case the content of the 2 articles.

The all lives matter thing is the most obvious one of all. I’m European and white and the Black Lives Matter movement was something I always perceived as self explanatory and I don’t see why anyone would have an issue with it. When they start with the all lives matter thing it’s where it gets ridiculous. As if the 2 were mutually exclusive when they’re practically synonymous. It’s as if fighting for the right for gay couples to marry meant only gay people could get married or women fighting for the right to vote meant suddenly men wouldn’t be allowed to vote.
The problem with it is that the idiotic all lives matter talking point and debates over it practically overshadowed what Black Lives Matter is all about.

I think the key here is realizing that in all honesty with these articles Johnny is simply stating the obvious. The fact that it gets the reactions it gets only shows how little willingness or being used to there is for voices like his to be heard because the people who are made uncomfortable by them lived their lives with the luxury of dismissing those voices while throwing the N word at them.

On behalf of all the NON-racist Mirandas out there…. we stand with you however we can!

It starts with education. I have been lucky enough to teach a Race in the Criminal Justice System class (my semesters often start with a discussion of the irony/ridiculousness that a middle class white woman is teaching classes with predominantly Black enrollment about racial injustice in our system). Building alliances among young White, Black, Asian, and Latino students has been a strong source of change for us. My students teach me every day.

But we need more Black criminologists! I shouldn’t be the only one in my department teaching this.

I wonder how quickly Miss Miranda (in the article) tried to send you an apology after you shared her disgusting rqycism with the world (while begging you to take it down), completely missing the point of the article?

We are the lost sheep of the Israel. We fit the curses in deutoronomy 28:15-68. That is why we are so hated by the nation’s. We negros are scattered throughout all countries just as scripture prophecy.